Interview. Voog user experience

June 15, 2017

On June 15, the Estonian Voog published an interview with Ritums who has been using their web tool for over 10 years now. Voog is the best tool for building and managing exceptional websites and online stores: it is easy to use, yet super flexible at the same time. Behind Voog stands a team of 12 skilled craftsmen and its founders’ day-to-day experience in web design dates back to the 1990s.

Ritums Ivanovs is a well known Latvian painter, having achieved global success with his marvellous work. We've hosted his website for the past decade, and we were eager to catch up and learn about his Voog experience so far.If you're not familiar with Ritums portfolio, he uses precise and hyperrealist depictions of reality and bright polychromatism. Working in his unique linear technique, he paints portraits and nudes on exceptionally large-scale canvases. Some of his work can be currently seen in Switzerland, Germany and of course, Latvia.

You've been with us for quite a while — when was the first time you heard about our website building tool?

It was actually before you guys were called Edicy, about 10 years ago, when Tõnu (former CEO, current partner at Voog) ran an agency called Krabi.

Wow, so you're one of the true old-schoolers. Did you already have a website back then before reaching out to us?

Yes, I had about three or four website versions beforehand, I ran them in a private server. My friend handled the designs and created the websites for me. But then I became friends with you guys, and it made sense to do a project together — I really liked the idea of working with a smaller, independent company rather than joining a major platform.

What where the key requirements towards designers while starting off with the development of your site?

I liked the way that you worked and that you provided a design for me. For us, it was very important to have a simple platform that would be updated by you guys as the time went on, and that we can easily add news items, pictures and all the necessary texts to the website.

Were there any hesitations when you had to choose relatively unknown tool next to giants like WordPress, Joomla, Squerspace etc?

No, we're always happy to support local companies rather than major ones, and your team in Estonia, working together with the guys from Skype back in the day, seemed like somebody we can trust. So there wasn't even a discussion about looking elsewhere.

How did you like the upgrade to Voog?

There were actually a few little roadblocks for us — we were on Edicy for quite a while, and then we received a new custom design that we wanted to publish. But to do that, we first had to work on some technical details before proceeding with the new platform. However, once we got the issues out of the way and the new website running, we're very happy with it.

Functionalities-wise, are you happy with the current tools?

I'm happy and sure, I'm always aiming for new, more specific functions as well, but the main thing is that the drag and drop function is working great, it's easy to add content to the site and it doesn't take a lot of our time.

Thats great to hear! Our goal is to provide a website creating tool for both people with little to none web experience as well as to the developers with specific, technical needs. We would like to thank you Ritums Ivanovs for his time and here's to another decade of good partnerships!

Author of the interview: Mathias-Erik Tempel, the dude who stands behind Voog marketing plans. He is also the general manager of the team and handles customer relationships.